


I'll Be The Star That Shines Upon You

by UnspokenWords



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Background Keith/Hunk, Background Shiro/Adam, Background Veronica/Acxa, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Fashion Designer Allura, Fluff, Internet friends to lovers, Keith & Shiro (Voltron) are Siblings, Mentions of K-Pop, Minor She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018) Spoilers, Poet Romelle, Twitter AU, sapphic longing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 07:49:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 10,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24467491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnspokenWords/pseuds/UnspokenWords
Summary: Romelle should've known this would happen. She should've known that talking to Allura was dangerous. She's but a simple sapphic, and Allura was beautiful. And funny, and sweet, and they had a lot in common. And it was so fun to talk to her. They could talk about anything, and everything, and it was interesting.Romelle should've known that she would fall in love with her Twitter mutual. They had a time difference of a few hours, and there was no way they would ever see each other. Dating her would mean being touch-starved every day, would mean trying to deal with the time difference, would mean flirting over video calls.But, Romelle dug herself this grave, and now she's got to lay in it.
Relationships: Allura/Romelle (Voltron)
Comments: 24
Kudos: 16





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

  * For [srxnlk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/srxnlk/gifts).



> Hello everyone! This is actually my first big sapphic fic! I'm sapphic myself, but I haven't had a longer fic like this dedicated to a sapphic relationship. I'm really happy that I've finally written this. I hope you enjoy it.
> 
> This was commissioned by my friend @srxnlk on Twitter. Thank you for giving me this opportunity, and I'm sorry I went overboard.

Well, this is new. Romelle hasn’t felt like _this_ in a while.

Heart beating out of her chest, face red with laughter, tongue-tied from being flustered. Being excited to talk to someone every single day, wanting to talk to them forever. Romelle hasn’t had a crush in a while.

Well, she’s been known to catch feelings fast, as fast as her cat Whiskers runs to the food bowl after he hears the can opener, so maybe it’s actually not been that long. But that’s not the point. Romelle thinks it _feels_ like it’s been a while.

In contrast, Romelle doesn’t know how long she’s actually been talking to Allura. She could check, but that requires scrolling all the way up through all of their messages and she’s a little too lazy for that. But how long they’ve been talking isn’t what matters, because even in that amount of time, they’ve become really really close friends.

And Romelle looks forward to talking to her every single day. Allura makes her smile. They can talk about the simplest things and still have an interesting conversation. Or, talk about the most complicated things. They have a lot more in common than she initially thought.

Allura makes her feel like she’s sitting in front of a fire with a cup of hot chocolate. Romelle doesn’t have to worry about judgment with her. She can just be herself and talk about whatever she wants, whether it’s about the videos she’s watching on YouTube or what she had for breakfast. She doesn’t have to worry if she’s sending a selfie with her messy short hair and her glasses and no bra and a cat on her lap, or if she’s sending one in her work uniform with contacts in, or if she’s dressed up with makeup and an outfit to take photos in at her own home. 

Allura’s easy to talk to, whether it’s through messaging or calls. When they call to play games together, like Animal Crossing, or when they call to watch things together, like new seasons of _Netflix_ shows, she’s always made their conversation flow well. There’s never been an awkward silence; it’s talking and laughing and maybe snorting from laughing too hard. Romelle also doesn’t mind Allura’s British accent, which is still super strong despite having moved from the U.K. to the U.S. 

But, even though they’re in the same country, it’s not the same state, and they still had to deal with time differences. Even though it was only a few hours, they still had their jobs and college and friends and homework, so the time difference did affect how often they talked to each other. And, it means there’s no chance they could ever meet, especially with flights so being expensive. And there’s no way Romelle could ask her brother for money to fly and see the girl she likes, he would laugh at her. He wouldn’t understand falling in love with someone who you don’t see in person.

But, Romelle was the one who got herself into this mess. Into dealing with a time difference, into having a clock on her phone with Allura’s time so she could call Allura out when she stayed up too late, into making playlists, into writing poems about her. She was the one who had to fall in love with her Twitter mutual.

Well, when they first “met,” she didn’t _think_ anything would happen. She has a lot of friends online, lots of mutuals, so she didn’t think much of it. Allura was just another friend. Romelle had followed Allura first, and Allura followed her back. They started interacting with each other on each other’s _Steven Universe_ posts, and then it just escalated from there. They replied to each other’s posts from other fandoms too. When Allura recommended that she watch _She-Ra and the Princesses of Power_ , Romelle ended up messaging her with all of her reactions from the two seasons that were out, and that’s how it really started.

From there, they just talked. Talked about the show, talked about their lives, talked about video games. They talked about their interests, about music, about what type of tea they liked to drink. Allura was telling Romelle the right way to make tea, which was black breakfast tea with milk, which Romelle tried and found gross, so she never drank it again. Romelle teased Allura over her pronunciation of “aluminum” and “vitamin.”

Allura told Romelle about her life. She’s majoring in business and taking the courses for it, but it’s not what she really wants to do. She’s set up to take over her father’s business in the future, which is nepotism and Allura knows it. She doesn’t want to take it over anyway. She wants to be a fashion designer. She’s learned how to sew and how the different fabrics work from online classes. Her father bought her a high-end sewing machine for her 20th birthday a few years ago, and she spends the money she gets working for him and tutoring on fabrics and threads. And sure, her father helps her with rent and other ways of supporting her, but he still wants her to earn her own money and support herself.

In return, Romelle told Allura about her life. She told her about her creative writing courses. About her poetry and her fiction. She tells Allura about her characters; one was a dancer and the other was a law student, and how they help each other gain independence and freedom, all while falling in love. She talks to her about how she used to want to do fashion design, but she quickly discovered that she preferred styling and doing entire looks. She talks about the corner in her apartment she has set up just for her to take photos of the outfits she puts together, about the camera she bought, about the elaborate backgrounds she sets up.

And Allura listens to Romelle. She listens and engages in conversation with her, she asks questions and wants to see photos. She’s interested and she actually cares about what Romelle has to say and what she wants. They banter and riff off each other well. The two of them just click, like they were meant to talk to each other.

Yeah, Romelle hasn’t felt like this in a while. Heart beating out of her chest, face red with laughter, tongue-tied from being flustered. And sure, she was easy to fall in love, to feel like this.

But this? This was different. _Allura_ was different.

And Romelle liked her a lot. She liked how they talked and how they meshed and the fun she had when they played games together, and just Allura. She liked Allura.

And she wasn’t going to compromise that. She wasn’t going to lose Allura.

So she’ll stay quiet. Enjoy being her friend.

For now.


	2. Poem 1

From Romelle's Diary:

> You’re light pink clouds floating across a purple sky,  
> Flower petals in the wind flying by.  
> You blossom before my eyes,  
> I think I would fly if I could call you mine,  
> If I could hold your hand in mine,  
> The way Adora holds Catra’s when she asks her to come with her.
> 
> You are cotton candy on a winter’s day:  
> Sweet, fluffy, whimsical.  
> Maybe fairy floss was a better word, because you’re a fairy,  
> And I’m just dreaming, waiting to be tricked.
> 
> You’re a purple moon in a sunset reflected in a tranquil pond,  
> In a calm body of water in my heart,   
> And then you’re a tsunami, lights reflecting and bouncing,  
> Washing over everything in its path.
> 
> You are an earthquake on a school day and I try to climb under my desk,  
> And the birdsong in the air when I wake up early on an April day.  
> You’re a tornado, tearing out the things I thought I knew about myself,  
> And the cashmere of the sweater my mother gave me when I turned 19.
> 
> You’re soft and dangerous, like a rose and a thorn,  
> And I can’t help but step closer.  
> You cast a spell on me, and I let you.  
> You’re the clouds I float on at Cloud Nine,  
> And I couldn’t be happier.


	3. Two

Every week on Friday, Keith and Hunk hosted a baking night at their apartment. It usually involved baking something new, then Hunk cooked dinner while it baked, and then they all had dinner and dessert.

This week was no exception. They were making a fruit pie and playing Monopoly together. So, when Romelle showed up at their apartment, feeding Whiskers before she left, with Rachel and a bottle of pink champagne, she thought it was just going to be a normal baking night.

It was not.

Hunk, leading as usual, was smart and made sure no one was getting drunk until dinner, since he didn’t want any accidents in the kitchen. No one wanted another...incident, like when Keith thought he burned himself while knocking over a hot tray of cookies. They ended up having to video call his brother Shiro so he could tell him that he wasn’t _actually_ burned.

Yeah, _no one_ wanted that again.

But, with this group of friends? They didn’t need alcohol to be clumsy. Rachel accidentally knocked over the bag of flour with her elbow after putting some music on. Keith opened the oven and almost grabbed the tray with his bare hands before his boyfriend stopped him. Keith was lucky Hunk had fast reflexes.

So, Hunk kicked everyone out of the kitchen for the rest of the food and baking process. This then led to Keith and Romelle and Rachel dancing in the “living room” to whatever dance music Rachel put on, and all of them getting dressed in whatever weird outfits Romelle picked out. Romelle guessed that Hunk had looked over and seen what they were doing, because he reminded Keith that he’s been wearing his binder for a while, and that he should take a break. So, Keith took off the outfit Romelle planned for him, and ended up just chilling in a hoodie.

But, since Keith already had his binder off, he decided that they should just pop open the bottle of champagne early. Which they did, and then proceeded to get drunk before Hunk was finished with dinner.

The food Hunk made was fantastic, and the fruit pie they all made together was great too, if not just a little too sweet. But Romelle liked sweet, which is why she had snuck a _tiny_ bit of extra sugar into the pie crust dough and the pie filling behind everyone’s back.

And now, they were playing Monopoly. Which, out of all the board games Keith and Hunk had in their apartment, was probably the worst. Romelle blames herself though, since she had chosen the game, so it was really _her_ bad idea.

So, yeah, maybe getting drunk and trying to play Monopoly was a bad idea. It started with Keith and Hunk being all flirty, Keith sitting in Hunk’s lap and them being all buddy-buddy and trading with each other and giving each other money.

But, the whole group is terribly competitive, and well— 

“I’m not trading you my brown, the hotels are cheap and you’ll get the monopoly,” Hunk says. 

“Oh, fuck you,” Keith says. “Just so you know, I’m taking away your ice cream privileges.”

“I don’t even like coffee ice cream!”

“Don’t lie to me, I’ve seen you sneaking it out of the freezer at night and eating it. I just haven’t mentioned it because I love you.”

“Awwwwww,” Hunk says, reaching out to hug Keith, before Keith moved away.

“Nope, no hugs. If you want hugs, I want the brown.”

Romelle is just sipping from her hot chocolate, the one that Rachel made for her with the stash of stuff she has in Keith and Hunk’s apartment. Finally, Keith finishes his turn, with no trade with Hunk. Then it was Rachel’s turn.

“Romelle, give me Boardwalk and I’ll give you $20 right now,” Rachel says, pulling out a $20 bill.

“$30 and you have to take me out for ice-cream,” Romelle replies.

“Deal,” Rachel replies, and hands her $30 in cash, as Romelle hands her Boardwalk, giving Rachel the dark blue color set.

* * *

So, Rachel ended up winning the game by bankrupting everyone ruthlessly, but Romelle was the real winner in the end. Not only did she make it out with $30 and ice cream from Rachel, but she also got some of Rachel’s hoodies, which were great because she was eyeing that cropped hoodie with chains that she had. She’s had an outfit that she wanted to post on her fashion Instagram in it for a while, with some black cargo pants and a belt with chains hanging down from it.

And, now they were all just laying around, with Keith and Hunk cuddling on the couch and Romelle and Rachel sitting on the floor; they were updating everyone on their lives. Hunk had made a friend at his part-time job at the coffee shop: his co-worker Pidge. Pidge had moved from another city, and was around the same age as the rest of them. Keith had been working on some new designs and art pieces for possible tattoos, and was thinking of convincing Shiro to get one. Rachel was really into Korean girl groups, and was buying albums for each comeback. Her twin brother Lance was getting into it too. She also apologizes to Keith and Hunk for Lance not being able to make it tonight, since he had work and didn’t bother to say anything until the last minute.

And Romelle?

“Yeah, I met a beautiful sapphic on Twitter and I have a crush on her, so what?”

“You _have_ to ask her out, Ellie,” Rachel says. “You keep looking at your phone all hopeful whenever you get a notification, and then you put it back down disappointingly, like a sad puppy.”

“Whiskers would be offended to hear you say that. And no way! Allura and I have been friends for a while and I don’t wanna ruin it!”

“Ooo, so her name is Allura,” Hunk says.

“Lemme see,” Keith says, grabbing Romelle’s phone and unlocking it. 

“Keith! If you attempt to message her at _all_ , I will _not_ hesitate to tell Hunk about when you had a crush on him.”

Keith hands back the phone right away. “I just wanted to see if she had a crush on you too,” he mumbles.

“Babe,” Hunk says, “you had no idea I had a crush on you until I told you, I don’t think you’re the best person for this.”

“... Fair,” Keith says, snuggling back into Hunk’s arms.

“Just ask her out, Romelle. I'm sure she probably feels the same way,” Hunk says.

“How could she _not_ , I mean look at you,” Rachel adds.

“Again, no way! I’m not asking her out.”

“Then at least tell us what you like about her.”

“Well,” Romelle says, “she’s easy to talk to. She’s sweet and we have a lot in common. She’s open to learning about new things. We can have light-hearted discussions, but also serious discussions. I wake up in the morning and message her ‘good morning,’ and message her ‘goodnight’ when I go to sleep. We talk for hours, and I think about messaging her whenever I’m at work or in class instead of focusing. I just feel excited around her, but also like this was how it was supposed to be. Like I was meant to meet her.”

Everyone is silent, the spin of the fan above them and the hum of the electricity filling the room. Did Romelle say something wrong?

“That sounds more like love than just a crush,” Hunks says.

“It does,” Keith adds.

Rachel grabs Romelle’s hand, and looks her in the eyes. “Romelle, you should tell her. She’s sapphic, and according to you, she’s talking to you all the time. And, you're really pretty. There’s no way she _doesn’t_ like you at the very least.”

“I mean, she’s outta my league but—”

“ _And_ ,” Rachel says, ignoring what Romelle said, “if she doesn’t like you, I’m sure she’ll still want to be friends with you. If you really do click like you say you do, then I’m sure you won’t lose her.”

“Plus, we had champagne tonight, so if it goes wrong, just blame it on the alcohol,” Keith chimes in.

“We’ll be here with you if you get rejected,” Rachel says.

“We can make ice cream and ice cream sandwiches next week if it happens.” Hunk adds.

Romelle smiles softly, the corners of her mouth moving up only slightly. She really does love her friends. She’s glad she has such nice friends who will help her through anything. They’re really great people. She knew that her friends would be there for her no matter what, but this is what convinces her.

“Okay. I’ll do it.”

“Yay!” Rachel says, and hands Romelle her phone.

Romelle unlocks it, opens the call menu, and hesitates. What if something goes wrong? Rachel reaches over and presses the call button for her.

She’s calling Allura. To tell her she loves her. Romelle almost hangs up, but it’s too late. Allura picks up almost right away.

“Hey, Romey. It’s Friday, aren’t you with your friends? Is something wrong?” Allura says, her voice ringing over the phone. Allura’s voice is so pretty, it almost makes Romelle forget about her surroundings. 

“No, nothing’s wrong. I just—” Romelle takes a deep breath. “I just wanted to tell you that I love you.”

“I love you too,” Allura replies, as if it was instinct. As if it was platonic. 

“No, I _love_ you. I’m _in love_ with you, Allura.” Romelle can feel all her friends looking at her, all their eyes staring at her. She should’ve gone to the bathroom to do this, where she would’ve been alone. And she can feel her heart beating out of her chest, she feels like she’s aware of her breathing.

Rachel reaches over to hold Romelle’s hand and squeezes it. Reminds her that she’s there for her. That’s she’s got her. Romelle breathes slowly.

“Oh. _Oh_ ,” Allura says.

Allura doesn’t say, and Romelle can feel every second ticking. It stretches infinitely, and every second feels like a knife inching deeper into her heart.

“Sorry, I just can’t believe this. I _love_ love you too, Romey.”

Oh. Allura loves her too.

 _Oh._ _Allura loves her too._

Romelle just starts laughing, she doesn’t know if she’s ever been this happy before, but she is. She feels like she’s floating, like the bubbles in pink champagne, like a balloon floating in an endless room.

“So, we _both_ love each other?” Romelle says. The idea of it still seems unreal to her.

“I guess we do,” Allura says, before she giggles. Romelle loves her giggle.

“So, do you wanna be my girlfriend?”

“Duh, of _course_ I want to be your girlfriend.”

“Cool.” Romelle has a girlfriend now and she can’t quite wrap her head around it but she’s got a girlfriend and it’s _Allura_ and they’re dating. “Wow, I can’t believe you had a crush on me, that’s embarrassing.” 

“Romelle! You had a crush on me too, so we’re both embarrassing.”

“Never said I wasn’t.”

“Pft, loser. I love you, Romey. Now get back to your hangout, we can talk more tomorrow.”

“I love you too,” Romelle says, before hanging up the call, and slowly putting her phone in her lap.

“So, I have a girlfriend now,” she says, turning to the group. The reality is still sinking in, she can hardly believe it herself. She’s dating Allura. 

They end up popping open some cans of beer to celebrate, and Rachel and Romelle crash on the bed in Keith and Hunk’s spare room. It was not a normal Friday baking night at all. 


	4. Poem 2

From Romelle's diary:

> Red dress, I step into it and pull it up.  
> It skims my body, the velvet clinging to me in the best way possible.  
> Pull the thin straps over my shoulder, framing my collarbones.   
> With heavy blush spread on my cheeks, cream blush still on my fingers.  
> A bit on my nose, red eyeshadow on my lids, fake lashes with hearts glued on,  
> It’s Valentines’ Day, my love.
> 
> My favorite color is blue, the same blue as your eyes,  
> The blue with the brown ring in the center.  
> But, your favorite color is red, the red of a rose,  
> The red of love.
> 
> The red of love,  
> Red on my neck, your lipstick would stain even from a peck.  
> Wish you could kiss the mirror I stand in front of,  
> Then I could see your lips on my cheek.  
> I look at you on my screen, I look into my mirror,  
> I imagine you behind me, holding me in your arms.  
> I feel your arms as if they were there, but they aren’t.  
> I wish they were around me, making me feel warm and at home.  
> Don’t wanna ruin my makeup, I can’t cry from longing.  
> It’s Valentines’ Day.  
> I hope the flowers and fabric I bought you got delivered safely.  
> I love you.


	5. Three

_Ding dong._

Romelle’s doorbell rings. She wasn’t expecting anyone, and usually Rachel would call her or just use her key. Unless she forgot it.

And she didn’t order anything, so it couldn’t be a package. There’s not really any events coming up that would warrant a gift. It’s not her birthday for months. Valentine’s Day was last week too, so it couldn’t be anything from Allura. Allura had already gotten Romelle flowers and a new camera for her fashion Instagram too, so it definitely wasn’t a late present. And Allura would’ve told her if something was coming. Right?

Romelle pauses _Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion_ , puts down her neon green and pink JoyCons, pauses her LOONA playlist, and goes to the door. She’s just been lazing around in an oversized shirt and booty shorts, and she doesn’t want to answer the door like that if it’s a stranger.

Romelle looks through the peephole on her door. There’s no one there, so whoever rang the doorbell was already gone. Romelle opens her door, and finds a box on her doorstep. 

She leans over to pick it up, and closes and locks the door behind her. She doesn’t want Whiskers to get out. She goes back to her room, Whiskers following her, and sits back on her bed, legs crossed. She puts the box on her lap and finally gets a good look. 

It’s from Allura.

_It’s from Allura_. It’s not the first package Romelle has received from her girlfriend of three months, but it’s usually just a sweater or something. The box is usually smaller. She’s never gotten something this _big_. 

Romelle picks up her phone and video-calls her girlfriend. If Allura doesn’t pick up, she’ll record a video of her opening the package and send it to her later. She’s been pretty busy recently, so Romelle understands.

But, Allura does answer. She’s got her laptop out and her hair up in a messy bun and her gold rim glasses and a black and white striped sweater on and Romelle’s heart just _swells_. She really does love this girl. 

“Hey, starlight. What’s up?” Allura says, looking at Romelle through the screen.

“Well, you see, I got a package today. And it says it’s from you,” Romelle says, pulling the box into frame.

“Oh?” Allura says, cocking an eyebrow.

“Yeah. But it isn’t actually from you, right? You would’ve told me if there was something coming, so this must be something fake,” Romelle says, rolling her eyes. She loves teasing her girlfriend.

“Romey, don’t you dare think of tossing that away! Of course, it’s from me.”

“Pft, I know. I only called you ‘cause I thought you would want to see me open it.”

“That I do,” Allura says, closing her laptop. She takes a sip of her coffee. “So what are you waiting for? Open it!”

Romelle pulls out a pair of scissors. cuts off the tape, and opens the box, and inside is—

“‘Llura, you did _not_.”

“Maybe I did,” Allura’s voice rings from the phone, but Romelle isn’t looking at her. She’s looking at the box.  
Inside of the box, to be more specific. On top of yellow fabric, were two sealed albums: the Go Won solo pre-debut album, and the LOONA + + limited B album.

“You did _not_. Princess, how did you get your hands on these?”

“It’s me, of course it was easy,” Allura says. “Are you going to open them? I want to see your pulls.”

Romelle puts the box next to her, and puts the albums on her lap. She uses her nail to open the seal on the Go Won album and carefully peels off the plastic.

She opens the photobook and flips through the pages until—

“I got the one I wanted!” Romelle screams.

“The blue shirt one?”

“The blue shirt one!” Romelle says, turning the card to show it to her girlfriend.

“Woohoo!” Allura says, throwing her hands up in celebration. 

“Okay, okay, I gotta do the next one.” Romelle puts the photocard back in and puts the album to the side, pulling + + into her lap. She does the same thing as she did with Go Won’s and pulls out the vertical photocard, the one with Go Won. 

“I’m gonna cry, I can’t believe you were able to get both of these for me _and_ I got my photocards.”

“Don’t cry yet, you’re gonna stain the photobooks! And, there’s another gift in the box too.”

“You can’t just tell me _not_ to cry.”

“Cry after the other gift then.”

“Fine, I’ll open the other gift,” Romelle says, rolling her eyes at her girlfriend. “But, I have to put my albums away first.”

Romelle stands up from her bed, and places her new albums on her album shelf. She grabs her phone and flips the camera to show Allura, before propping up her phone, sitting back down on the bed, and grabbing the box again.

Romelle looks at the yellow fabric that was under the albums. It’s bulky. And It’s not just a fabric, it’s a piece of clothing. She pulls it out of the box, and the fabric falls. It’s a dress. It’s a yellow strapless dress with ruching down the center of the top, and the bottom is an asymmetrical skirt. It’s beautiful.

Romelle loves it with all of her heart. It’s fantastical but also bright and funky. It’s perfect for her style. She opens the top to check the tag, but there is none in the back.

“Allura, did you _make_ this dress for me?”

“Maybe.”

“Moonlight,” Romelle says sternly.

“Sunshine,” Allura fires back.

“Oh, is _that_ why it’s yellow? Because I’m your sun?”

“You got it, love. It’s dry-clean only though, so don’t go too wild. It took a while, since the fabric was hard to work with, but I hope you love it.”

“Love it? I don’t love it, I’m _in love_ with it. Sorry my love, but I’m gonna break up with you to date this dress.”

“Well, it was going to happen at some point,” Allura says dramatically resting her hand on her head like a damsel-in-distress. “But seriously, go try it on! I got measurements from Rachel, so if it doesn’t fit I’ll have to adjust it, and sending it back and forth is a hassle.

Romelle steps off-camera to try it on. There’s a hidden zipper in the back of the dress, so it’s easy for her to slip on. Once it’s snug on her body, she grabs her phone and goes to her full-length mirror to show it to her girlfriend.

“What do you think?” Romelle asks.

“You look amazing in it. Wow, I just... I _really_ want to kiss you right now.”

“Thank you, my moon.”

“Does it fit well? Any problems? Anything poking or uncomfortable?”

“It fits perfectly, and it’s comfortable so far.”

Allura sighs. “I’m so glad. If you do find any problems, you _have_ to send it back to me, I’ll pay you back for the shipping.”

Romelle moves around in the dress, jumps around in the dress, walks around in the dress, twirls in the dress, and there are no problems whatsoever.

“Nope! It’s perfect.”

“Thank heavens, I was so worried it wouldn’t fit and that Rachel had messed up a number or two.”

“Wait, how does she even have my measurements?”

“She said she asked you before and she has it marked down so she can buy clothes for you.”

“Of course she does.”

Romelle goes to her bed to move the box so she could lay down, and finds Whiskers in the box.

“Look!” she says, pointing the camera at him.

“Awww, he’s so cute!” Allura says, cooing over him.

Once Romelle ends up laying on the bed, she stays on the call with her girlfriend for hours. She doesn’t take off the dress at all during that time. She later even decided to do a photo for her fashion Instagram. She did her makeup for the look while still on the call with Allura, set up props, like fake sunflowers, in her photo corner as well.

By the time Allura has to go for dinner with her father, Romelle is giggly and happy and sweet. She ate ice cream and drank hot chocolate and played love songs from Mamamoo and LOONA.

Yeah, she’s really in love with Allura. She really is in deep with her princess. And she wouldn’t want it any other way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I mentioned a lot of K-Pop related stuff in this chapter, but for the rundown: Go Won is a member of the girl group LOONA. LOONA has twelve members, each of whom got a solo song before they debuted as a group! Go Won's solo song is ["One & Only."](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5qwcYL8a0o)  
> \+ + was LOONA's debut album as a full group! You can find their song "Hi High" [here.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=846cjX0ZTrk)  
>  Anyway, to the next chapter!


	6. Poem 3

From Romelle's diary:

> I place the crown upon your head,  
>  You place your hand in mine.  
>  We walk together into the moonlight.  
>  My princess, my love,  
>  I give you power over me,  
>  And you decide to whisper my name.  
>  You are royalty to me,  
>  A shining jewel.
> 
> I place the crown upon your head,  
>  But you take it off.  
>  You tell me we’re equal,   
>  That you’re not above me.
> 
> I place the crown upon your head,  
>  You place one upon mine.  
>  We walk hand-in-hand into the sunlight.


	7. Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you would like the full experience for this chapter, please listen to the song [Physical (feat. Hwasa) by Dua Lipa.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWdwW3K1vGg)

Romelle dressed up for this night. Yes, she has a fashion Instagram and loves to dress up, but she doesn’t really dress up when she goes _out._ But for today? For this party? Romelle went all out. Dressed in a neon pink dress, pink combat boots, and with her short hair down with neon pink and green hairpins in it, Romelle really tried her best for this.

Rachel was meeting her at the venue. She loved dancing with Romelle, but more than that, she loved dressing up with this type of thing. So, Romelle is not surprised to see her best friend in a neon green crop top, a white fishnet bodysuit underneath, black cargo pants, and black combat boots with neon green shoelaces, looking at her phone.

She’s happy to see Rachel. She’s been looking forward to this night. Work and school were making her miserable, and Romelle really just needed a break. Twitter was crazy with drama, and there wasn’t any new music or seasons of shows she liked coming out soon.

Plus, Allura has been busy recently. They’ve both been stressed, so they’ve been calling each other at least once a week to update each other on their lives. Allura is dealing with her father and the company, and she’s not making as much money from tutoring as she used to be. And, she was busy tonight.

The last photo she sent to her was weird though, a selfie of her somewhere she hasn’t seen before saying that she would talk to her soon. But, she’s here to party and spend time with Rachel, not to ponder over Allura’s photo. So, she puts her phone on “Do Not Disturb” and walks up to her best friend.

“Rachel,” Romelle says.

“Finally, you made it,” Rachel says. She looks Romelle’s outfit up and down. “I'm still surprised you didn’t wear the hoodie I gave you with the chains, or the multi-chrome pink-yellow bodycon. Those could’ve been perfect.”

“And, like I told you when we coordinated our outfits two weeks ago, this is what makes me happy.”

“And because it makes you happy, it makes me happy. Plus, you look really nice in it. Get a picture of me before we go in though, okay?” Rachel says, and Romelle grabs her phone. 

“Oh, you changed out the photocard,” Romelle says. The photocard in the back of Rachel’s clear phone case was the Moonbyul one from Yellow Flower before, but now it’s Mina from Fancy You.

“Yeah, I thought the neon green blouse she was wearing would match my outfit!”

Romelle takes quite a few photos of Rachel, and then they switch places. Romelle hands Rachel her phone, E:U photocard in the back, and Rachel takes her photo too.

Then, they walk into the venue, arms linked together.

* * *

Romelle’s dancing to this song, something about getting physical. Some parts are in Korean, but she can’t quite tell who is singing. The voice sounds familiar though, husky and sultry, which was very fitting for the song. Whoever they’re singing with, the other person is speaking English. 

But, it doesn’t matter what language it’s in, or who the artist is, Romelle knows how to appreciate music. The song flows through her blood, intoxicating her. She can feel it getting to her head.

It’s hot in here. She’s been dancing for at least three songs, and anyone who knows Romelle knows she really stops caring once the music hits her and it gets hot. A few songs earlier, she joined Rachel on the dance floor, who was on her phone for some reason, but she was having the time of her life dancing by her side.

She feels like everything is moving in slow motion, but the songs aren’t going slow enough. She wants this one to last forever.

“Hey there,” a voice says from behind Romelle.

Romelle recognizes this type of tone. Someone is hitting on her. Now, she’s has had a fair amount of people hit on her in the past, of all genders, but she was not in the mood tonight. She will not let her fun be ruined by this. She turns around to give this person a piece of her mind and— 

It’s Allura. It’s Romelle’s girlfriend. In the flesh. And she’s got on a white blazer with neon green edges, and colorful pink and green and white hair clips, and a neon pink tube top and white slacks and she’s _glowing_ in this lighting. And she’s here. In front of Romelle. 

“...Allura?”

“Hi, Romey. Do you like the pink? I thought we could match.”

Romelle is still in shock that Allura is here, British accent and all. And wearing an amazing suit that she wanted to match with her in and— 

“Wait, ‘Llura, did you _make_ this suit?”

“Maybe. Rachel told me you were doing pink, so I color-coordinated the top to match.”

“You made the suit _and_ you wore pink to match me? Awwww, I could cry,” Romelle says, fanning her eyes as if trying to stop tears.

“Oh, you wouldn’t cry about the fact that I’m here in person?”

“Well, maybe I’ll cry about that later.” Romelle felt the tears coming. “Or maybe now.”

“Oh dear, let’s get you off the dance floor first.” Allura grabs her hand and helps to guide her until they reach the tables.

Allura sits with Romelle until she’s done crying, helps wipe her tears, holds her and holds her hand. 

And finally, when Romelle is calm, she just looks at Allura and remembers all their messages. All her messages about wanting to kiss her, about kissing her cheeks and her eyebrows and then her lips. 

All the messages where Allura told Romelle to shut up and Romelle replied for Allura to make her shut up.

And now she finally has her girlfriend in front of her, even more beautiful than she looks in photos, and she can’t help it.

“Can I kiss you, princess?” she says.

Allura smiles, her dimples showing. Romelle loves her dimples. “I thought you’d never ask.”


	8. Poem 4

From Romelle's diary:

> Hand in mine, the neon lights blind me.  
>  But, in this moment, I don’t care.  
>  I only care about you.  
>  Your hand in mine, your lips against mine,  
>  Your jacket on my shoulders, keeping me warm.
> 
> You’re finally in my grasp,  
>  How could I let you go?  
>  I want to hold you against me,   
>  Want you to say my name in your sleep  
>  As we cuddle.  
>  I want to pull you in by the lapel of your jacket  
>  And kiss you on the dance floor,  
>  Music running through our veins.  
>  I want to feel your hand tighten around mine  
>  As we eat cookie dough ice cream.  
>  I want to walk around  
>  In your shirts as you kiss me good morning.
> 
> How could I let you go?  
>  The neon lights blind me,  
>  But I hold your hand tighter.


	9. Five

Allura is staying here for a week. She did book a hotel, and it was quite a nice one, but when Romelle offered to let her stay, Allura canceled her reservation in a heartbeat. She wanted to meet Whiskers and show Romelle how tea should really be made and play games together. And also just be with her girlfriend.

But Romelle only has one bed. Allura did offer to sleep on the couch, but there’s no way Romelle could let her love do that. Plus, she finally has her girlfriend right in front of her. It would be a shame not to hold her in her arms as they slept, to cuddle as Romelle has dreamed about. And she’s actually dreamed about holding Allura, and felt empty when she woke up without her in her arms.

So, Romelle’s been trying to live her dreams. She and Allura have been sleeping in the same bed and waking up, limbs entangled in each other, bodies pressed against each other. Romelle making breakfast, and Allura making tea the wrong way. It’s the most domestic they’ve ever been. Well, it’s not that they could be domestic in the first place, since they’ve never met before. But, Romelle is trying to live out her domestic wishes while she can.

And that includes going on all the dates she can take Allura on. Ice cream dates, special dinners, bringing her on a free pass to the amusement park. Keith and Hunk even invited her over to the Friday bake night, which they’ve been looking forward to. School and work are still in the way, so they haven’t been able to do everything they wanted. But, Romelle feels like bliss.

But when Romelle wakes up at 5 A.M. for a morning shift at the store, something just doesn’t feel right. She went to sleep late last night, since they were playing Uno together, and she woke up to her alarm blaring. She’s lucky that Allura is a deep-sleeper, but maybe she’s not. She can’t kiss her girlfriend goodbye, and hardly has time for food. She just stops at Starbucks and grabs a croissant and some coffee to tide her over.

It doesn’t get better when she gets to work either. She ends up sitting at the cash register, waiting for someone to come in, but no one does. And that just leads to Romelle sitting on her phone, waiting. Passing the time. Scrolling through Twitter. Romelle isn’t good when she’s left alone like this. Her brain starts going against her. She starts overthinking.

With Allura here, she’s not just hearing about Romelle’s life from her. She’s not just seeing the Romelle selfie when she gets home from work, or calling her while she’s playing games. She’s not just hearing from Romelle how she burned her eggs because she was busy trying to change the song. Allura is seeing it.

Allura is seeing Romelle’s shitty sleep schedule, is seeing Romelle stress about her school. She sees Romelle doing her homework, sees Romelle ignoring her homework. She sees Romelle trying to make a mocha the way her dad taught her by making a coffee and put in hot chocolate powder. She sees Romelle spill the hot chocolate and groan and keep Whiskers away. She sees Romelle lint-rolling her clothes to get rid of his fur. She sees Romelle taking her pills in the morning—

Romelle forgot to take her pills this morning.

Romelle wishes she was anywhere but here right now.

* * *

Romelle gets her wish, but it somehow makes it even worse. Because Romelle went to campus and to class, and then realized she forgot all her materials for this class. She didn’t change out the books last night and didn’t put her laptop in her backpack this morning either, so she had the wrong notebook, wrong book, and just wrong _everything_. This day was not going well for her.

And, Romelle did try to concentrate. She really did. But her brain had other plans. She just kept _thinking_. Thinking about how Allura was probably going to want to break up with her after this week, how she’s going to meet her friends and not like them, how she’s going to see Romelle tipsy on Friday’s baking night and be disgusted. And then her friends are gonna think she let an amazing girl go and leave her, and they’ll hate her too.

Who is to say they don’t already hate her? Do they even really care? How could they care about Romelle, she’s dumb and messes everything up just like how she messed up today and didn’t do the homework and didn’t bring the materials to class and she just _couldn’t listen._

Romelle left class early and went home. Everything was noise to her, making her on edge. She tried to listen to her happy songs, to her upbeat bubblegum pop playlist, but it just annoyed her. She just listened in silence.

And, now, she’s at her front door, and she doesn’t want to go in. Allura is inside, the one person who is put together and doesn’t have problems like she does, the one person she doesn’t want to see her like this.

Romelle unlocks the door and walks in.

“Hey, love,” Romelle says, deadpan. She drops her backpack on the floor by the door and locks it.

“Hi, baby,” Allura says, looking up from her laptop.

“Whadda want for dinner?” Romelle says, but Allura looks at her weird.

“Is everything okay?” Allura says as Romelle feeds Whiskers his wet food for the night.

Romelle does not want to answer this right now. “Just tired. I’m thinking of ordering Chinese food. Thoughts?”

“Chinese food sounds good, but I know you when you’re tired and this isn’t that. If you don’t want to talk about it now, will you tell me about it after dinner?”

“Okay,” Romelle agrees, and then they start to come up with a list of what they want to eat.

* * *

Later, they’re on Romelle’s bed together, the room dark and silent. Allura is sitting up, and Romelle has her head in her lap.

“Do you want to talk about what was bothering you earlier?” Allura says, finally breaking the silence. And Allura’s been so nice, and she’s her girlfriend so she’ll understand, and Romelle just can’t help herself.

“I know it’s dumb and untrue, but I just feel so stupid and unloved and like everyone hates me. And I know you love me, but my brain is messing with me and saying that you don’t and that you’re just sticking around because you pity me or something and you’re gonna break up with me after you leave,” Romelle says, hiding her face from Allura’s view.

“Love, it’s okay. It’s not dumb that you feel this way. The brain is a complicated and irrational thing that fucks with us. But, know that your friends don’t hate you. I don’t hate you, and Keith and Hunk and Rachel don’t either. Rachel sent me your sizes so I could make you that dress, and Keith and Hunk wouldn’t keep inviting you over for Baking Night if they didn’t like you,” Allura says, running her hand through Romelle’s hair. “They do care about you, but it’s okay to feel that way. Don’t feel like it’s dumb.” Allura kisses her forehead. “Did you take your medication today? You left before me, so I couldn’t tell.”

Romelle is quiet. She didn’t.

“Love, you need to take your medication...”

“I just forgot this morning. And I don’t like it. It makes me feel dull.”

“It makes you feel dull, but it helps you from not feeling like this. I know you don’t like it, but I don’t want you to spiral in the future.”

“I know...”

“It’s not curing it, but it helps you manage it easier. And you know I love you whether you’re on your medication or not. You can talk to your therapist about easing off of it when you think you’re ready, but please don’t just stop taking it altogether.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll make you some tea, and then we can go to bed, alright?”

“Okay, but please make it the right way.”

“Pft, I think you mean the wrong way, but of course. And, if you still feel shitty when you wake up, She-Ra season five just came out, so we can watch it tomorrow since it’s your day off.”

“That sounds good.”

“I love you, Romey.”

“I love you too, princess.”

Romelle falls asleep to Allura singing along to Wheein’s cover of "Honey," and she dreams of her girlfriend playing the guitar under a windowsill, light filtering in, and she’s never woken up happier.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another reference! Wheein is a member of Mamamoo, like the aforementioned Hwasa and Moonbyul. She released a cover of Kehlani's song "Honey" for her birthday recently. You can find it [here.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wcAbpYfj5c)


	10. Poem 5

From Romelle's diary:

> You walk out of the bathroom,  
>  Toothbrush sticking out of your mouth,  
>  In one of my oversized shirts and loose shorts,  
>  And I think I could die.
> 
> Actually, I think I might die.  
>  My heart is racing, clenching and unclenching.  
>  Maybe I'm having a heart attack.  
>  Either way, I’m sure you’ve attacked my heart.
> 
> I look at you making black tea and pouring milk in,  
>  Your hair in a loose poof on the top of your head,  
>  And I can feel the ring I made in the locked dresser burning.  
>  I want to kneel down before you, and slip it on your finger.  
>  It’s a couple ring, nothing more,  
>  But, you are my moon and I am your sun,  
>  And rings that reflect that  
>  Like the ocean reflects the sun and the moon perfectly.
> 
> I see you typing away at your computer for your class.   
> And for your father’s emails,  
>  And I hear your laugh as you read a discussion post  
>  In which someone said something stupid,  
>  And I think about how someday,  
>  I want to be the Spinerella to your Netossa.
> 
> But being your wife is far into the future,  
>  And we’re still in college.  
>  I’ll wait.  
>  But, until then, the couple rings will do.  
>  I’ll slip this ring on your finger before  
>  You fly back home.  
>  I love you, my moon.


	11. Epilouge

It’s Romelle’s birthday today. And what a day it’s been so far. She had to go to school and take finals, including a timed writing prompt, and she’s never been good at timed things or tests. And then, after those stressful finals, she had to rush over to work since she was running late. She got yelled at by the manager, and she had customers trying to return perishables, which wasn’t even allowed under store policy. Which got her yelled at by customers too.

It was not a good day, and it wasn’t about to get any better. Romelle didn’t order herself a cake this year. It’s habit. Usually, Rachel orders a princess cake, which is Romelle’s favorite kind, and they play board games at her place until Shiro and his husband Adam have to come to pick up everyone and drop them off at their respective homes.

But, everyone was busy this year. Rachel and Lance said their sister Veronica and her wife Acxa were coming over for the holidays, so they needed to help their mom set up her room. Keith and Hunk were out of town on a road trip-date thing. Even Allura wasn’t able to call her. She was having a meeting with her father and the other important people to talk about how she’ll fit into the business and about being promoted.

So, Romelle was alone. And, she didn’t want to make a big deal out of being alone. She understood that other people were busy, and that they had things to do! And those things were more important than her birthday. And, none of them even wished her a happy birthday anyway, so they probably forgot.

Romelle just wants to take a nap and eat ice cream and be sad when she gets home. She stands in front of her door, puts the key in, turns it, and opens the door, and— 

“Surprise!” The lights turn on, and Romelle did not expect this one bit. Allura is there, holding a princess cake. And she’s surrounded by _everyone_. Rachel and Lance are there, Keith and Hunk are there, Pidge is there, Shiro and Adam are there, even Veronica and Acxa are there. And the place is decorated. Banners are taped to the wall, reading ‘Happy Birthday.’ There are cut-outs of all her biases’ faces taped to the wall too. The kitchen counter has tons of food and drinks on there, including Romelle’s alcoholic favorite pink champagne and non-alcoholic favorite ginger beer. There’s a pile of presents in the corner.

Romelle can’t even speak, she’s so shocked. All of her friends are here, and even more. They all came to celebrate _her_ for a surprise party. They didn’t forget at all.

“I can’t believe you all would do this, I’m gonna cry,” Romelle says. Rachel quickly puts down her camera and runs over to Romelle.

“Ellie, don’t cry,” she says, hugging her.

“I just— I was having such a bad day and I thought you all forgot and I’m just so _happy_ that you all remembered.”

Allura puts down the cake and rushes to the bedroom to grab some tissues, bringing them to Romelle.

“Starlight, it’s okay. I’m glad to see you too.” Allura helps to wipe Romelle’s tears, and kisses her on the forehead. “Are you ready to face everyone again?”

Romelle nods, and Rachel and Allura move away.

“The party girl is ready to party!” Rachel screams, and pops a party popper.

Romelle lightly hits Rachel’s shoulder. “Don’t scare Whiskers!”

Rachel laughs. “It’s okay, we put him in the bedroom and fed him earlier. He’s just sleeping.”

Romelle is glad to know her cat is okay.

The party goes on for a long time. They pop open the champagne, and Romelle only has one glass, but ends up having two bottles of ginger beer. They play Cards Against Humanity. Shiro and Adam are shocked by the options, but they’re old, so that’s expected. Pidge ends up winning.

Rachel blasts some quality girl groups songs through Romelle’s pink speaker. Hunk serves the cake. Romelle opens her presents while everyone has cake. Pidge gave her a gift card, since they didn’t know Romelle all that well. Rachel gave her a plastic halter top and plastic skirt with a black lining, as well as a _Cadence of Hyrule_ digital code. Keith and Hunk gave her the board game _Machi Koro_ , so she can play it whenever friends come over. Shiro and Adam gave her a convection oven, which would really come in handy if she wants to attempt to cook. Veronica and Acxa gifted her a cinematic lightbox, which Romelle is going to put song lyrics on.

And Allura? Allura gives her a handwritten letter in the front of a leather-bound notebook for her poetry and for jotting down ideas. She’ll read it later, when they’re alone, so she can cry. She’s never had a better birthday.

Eventually, when it’s past midnight, the party finally ends. Shiro and Adam take Keith, Hunk, and Pidge home, while Veronica and Acxa take Rachel and Lance back to their mom’s house. Which leaves Romelle and Allura, who just ended up laying on her couch. Rachel and everyone helped clean up thankfully, so they weren’t laying in piles of party rubble, but they were just relaxing. 

“Oh!” Allura said, sitting up from her head in Romelle’s lap.

“What?”

“I have a surprise for you.” Allura gets off the couch and shuffles towards the bedroom, where she put her luggage. She’s adorable when she’s excited.

“What is it?”

“As if I would tell you,” she yells from the bedroom.

Romelle shifts so she’s sitting parallel on the couch, leaning against the armrest. Allura comes back into the room with a wrapped box in her hands. It’s huge, almost as big as Romelle’s printer.

“Ta-da!” Allura hands the box to Romelle, then sits on the couch, her arm on the back. “I hope you like it.”

“Is this another gift?” Romelle says, looking at the box. It’s wrapped in a blue wrapping paper, with the _Steven Universe_ gems on it. That was how they first met, because of _Steven Universe_. Cute.

“It is.”

“You already gave me a gift, baby. You didn’t have to give me more.”

“Hm, but I wanted to. Now, go! Open it!” Allura says, looking at her with eyes wide. Waiting.

Romelle tries to peel off the wrapping paper carefully, removing the tape from the folded edges and opening in it. She didn’t want to rip the wrapping paper, it felt important to her. Maybe she could put it in the scrapbook she’s been making of her moments with Allura, along with the polaroid of them that Rachel took earlier. Once Romelle carefully removes the paper and puts it aside, she uses her key to open the tape on the box. It’s all that separates her from his gift. She finally opens the box.

Inside, surrounded by bubble wrap, are four albums. Three of them are LOONA albums. There’s X X limited A album, with the blue album art cover and the girls with butterfly wings, along with X X normal A, which has the girls standing in black blouses. They were all so pretty. Then there’s the Chuu pre-debut solo album, with Chuu looking at the camera with her brown curls and red bow and strawberry.

And lastly, not fitting in with the rest at all, was Mamamoo’s Yellow Flower, in its box with the flower logo on the front. Yellow Flower had some of her favorite songs, like “Paint Me” and “Starry Night” and “Star Wind Flower Sun _._ ” Romelle feels her heart melting looking at all of these albums. Allura had already given her the journal with the letter she hasn’t even gotten to read yet, and now _this_ too?

“Allura. Baby. Moonlight. This isn’t just one more gift, this is _four_ more gifts. I can’t believe you would do this for me again. What’s next, another dress?” Romelle wipes the tears pooling in her eyes.

“Look beneath the albums,” Allura says, smiling. She did _not_.

Romelle wraps the albums back in the bubble wrap for now, and puts them on the coffee table next to her. Then, she looks back to the box. There is something on the bottom, but it’s not that obvious what it is. It’s covered by some tissue paper, or maybe it’s wrapped in it? Romelle’s not sure, but she tries her best to pull it out anyway. Whatever it is, it’s puffy. 

She removes it from the tissue paper, and she was right. It is another dress. But this? It’s unlike any dress Romelle has seen Allura make before. All Romelle sees right now is tulle. Lots of tulle in Romelle’s favorite color: light blue. She picks up the dress and it unfurls. 

It’s a light blue off-the-shoulder dress. The off-the-shoulder sleeves are thick layers of tulle, with blue and yellow butterflies sewn on. The bodice is the same light blue, with boning in it, and there are fabric forget-me-nots in between the bodice and the skirt, which was also tulle, and was pretty short. Romelle turns it around, and finds that the back is a lace-up back.

She puts it down, and realizes her jaw is open. She quickly closes it, trying to do it before Allura sees it, but of course, Allura sees it anyway. And just smiles softly at her.

“Do you like it?” Allura asks.

“Like it? Allura, this is a masterpiece. I’ve never seen you make anything like this before, it’s stunning. The detail is amazing and it’s just... so beautiful. I love this even more than the last dress you gave me.”

“I’m so happy. I spent months on it. My dad visited me multiple times while I was working on it. He made me show him the finished product before I left.”

“What did he say?” Romelle knows that Allura’s father tries to be supportive of her, but he still expected her to take over the business. If this was taking her months and so much of her time, he might be upset.

“He told me that I didn’t have to take over. That I should probably finish my business courses in school, but not so I could take over his business. He wants me to start my own.”

“Really? Allura, I’m so proud of you! I’m so glad!” Romelle feels like she could cry, but also like she should bring out whatever champagne was left to celebrate. Her girlfriend finally did it. She’s so proud.

“Thank you, sunshine. Now, it’s time to put it one. I brought the thread I used and bought some needles and pins at a store nearby to help if there were any adjustments that needed to be done, so come on! I’ll help you with the back.”

Romelle goes into the bedroom to change. She puts on her strapless bra and some shorts, and then puts what she can of the dress on. It seems okay, but she really does need help with the back. She thought the sleeves would be itchy, by they surprisingly weren’t. She called Allura in, and Allura started to help lace up the back. Romelle just stares at herself in the full-length mirror, watching her girlfriend behind her. She stands there, feeling Allura’s fingers against her back as she fixes the ribbon to lay flat, and tightens it. She feels Allura tying it a bow, and letting go. She feels Allura place her hands on Romelle’s hips, and look at them both in the mirror.

“I’m done.”

Romelle somehow feels like a fairy, but also like a goddess. Everything just came together. Her girlfriend is by her side, and she’s wearing a beautiful dress, and everything seems right. She could say here forever.

But, she can’t. Allura grabs her hand and sends her to the bathroom, while she grabs something. Romelle stands in front of the mirror, waiting, when Allura shows up with a small box. She watches Allura open the box to reveal matching butterfly hair clips, and stands in front of the mirror as Allura makes a braided crown on her head. Romelle will never get tired of the feeling of Allura’s fingers in her hair, running through them or braiding it. She then adds the clips to her hair, and if Romelle didn’t feel like a goddess before, she sure as hell did now.

Allura grabs her hand again, and slowly takes her back out to the living space. She had turned on the color L.E.D. lights she helped put up when she visited last, and made them light pink. Allura’s favorite color. Allura picks up her phone and an instrumental track starts to play out of the speaker.

“May I have this dance?” she asks, giving Romelle no time to think about why this song is familiar.

Romelle grabs her hand instead of answering, and Allura pulls her in and starts to lead. They had practiced dancing once before, back when Allura visited and Romelle was interested in all the weird manner things her father made her learn when she was little, but she never expected they’d be dancing like this.

And then, Allura starts singing. Romelle has always loved Allura’s singing voice, the way it flows into her ear like honey, the way her higher register reminds her of birdsong, the way it makes her feel like she’s floating. But, there’s something different about this song, something familiar. It’s only when Allura gets to the chorus does it hit. She’s singing an English version of Mamamoo’s “Star Wind Flower Sun.”

Romelle listens to every word from then on, her head on Allura’s shoulder as they dance.

> _Listen to me._   
>  _When I see you smiling as if there is nothing wrong,_   
>  _It makes me worry._   
>  _Everything’s okay when you’re with me._   
>  _You can cry if you want to._   
>  _You probably have no idea how much I really like you._
> 
> _All the times we spent together, hand-in-hand._   
>  _All the memories we built together, laughing too._   
>  _Whenever I find myself feeling weak,_   
>  _That’s when I remember_   
>  _And smile thinking about those times._
> 
> _Now I can’t even say thank you,_   
>  _Without feeling so sorry._   
>  _I really can’t._   
>  _If I sing this song somewhere,_   
>  _Will my heart reach you?_
> 
> _Star Wind Flower Sun and you._   
>  _Star Wind Flower Sun and you._   
>  _Yes, it is all you._   
>  _Under the same sky, on a day like today,_   
>  _I’m grateful for the fact that I can see you face-to-face._   
>  _This is my heart, my feelings are only for you._
> 
> _This is my heart._   
>  _This is my heart._   
>  _This is my heart._   
>  _This is my song, and it’s only for you._

The song ends, and Romelle slowly lifts her head off of Allura’s shoulder. She feels like she’s coming back down to reality like she wasn’t really here. She looks up at her girlfriend, the one who did all of this for her. At Allura, at her princess. Maybe not even her princess, her queen. She can feel everything swelling up in her heart, and she can’t help it. 

Romelle cups Allura’s face and kisses Allura, kisses her lightly, softly, trying to get across everything she feels for her. And Allura kisses her back. They slot together as if they were just made for this. And maybe they were.

Maybe they were.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are a lot of references in this chapter. The first few albums are LOONA albums. X X was the repackage of their debut album + +, with the title song [Butterfly.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEOCbFJjRw0) Then, there's Chuu's pre-debut album. She's a member of the group, and her pre-debut single song was [Heart Attack.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVVfMFS3mgc) The M/V is often thought of as a sapphic anthem.
> 
> Lastly, there's Mamamoo's song "Star Wind Flower Sun" which plays a huge role in the ending of this fic. The song was composed by one of the members, Solar, and the lyrics were written by her and another one of the members, Moonbyul. It's a beautiful song, and you should watch [the M/V.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLeBQWw11yw)
> 
> There's one more poem left: Poem 0. Please enjoy.


	12. Poem 0

From Romelle's diary:

> I fall into you like I’ve fallen off a cliff:  
> Slowly, then all at once.
> 
> The first few seconds of free-falling felt like floating.  
> It felt like my heart was pounding against my spine.  
> Like cotton candy clouds in my stomach.  
> Then it hit, and I just kept wanting more.   
> More adrenaline, more of that rush,  
> More of that love.  
> I got a taste of your love once, you called me “baby”  
> And I melted in your hands like chocolate on a hot summer day.
> 
> I fall and I fall, velocity does its job.  
> I only fall faster.  
> I only want more. And more.  
> And more and more and more and more.  
> I want you to only call _me_ “baby,” nobody else.  
> I want to be special to you, I want to mean something.  
> I want you to whisper sweet nothings into my ear  
> As I sit on your lap, holding your hands in mine.  
> I want to kiss you, lips moving against each other  
> As if there was no tomorrow.
> 
> I want more, I keep wanting more,  
> Like a man in a desert that’s come upon water.  
> Like Eve and the apple, I get a taste of your love and I keep wanting more.  
> I want to do everything, everything you’ll let me.  
> Want to hold your face as I kiss you as you sit on my lap.  
> Want to take off your suit jacket as we kiss under the moonlight,  
> Want you to carry me inside because it’s cold and we’ve had too much to drink,  
> Want you to tuck me into bed, and leave your jacket on the nightstand.  
> I want my hand in yours, my fingers intertwined with yours,  
> As we walk down the street, window shopping and drinking hot chocolate.  
> I want to wake up next you and see the sun seeping through the blinds,  
> Shining on your face as you sleep, making you glow softly.  
> I want to cook you breakfast, want to help try on your designs,  
> Want to watch you succeed and become a fashion designer.
> 
> I want you.  
> I want Allura.  
> I want everything you’ll give me.  
> I fell into you like diving off a cliff:  
> A little, and then all at once.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was a long time in the making, and I'm really proud of it. I wrote all these poems myself, and writing each one was it's own journey. I hope you all liked it. The title is from a solo song by Mamamoo's Moonbyul. The song is called [Eclipse.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCTqcTe1lIA) I would recommend watching it with captions on. 
> 
> If you enjoyed this or if you didn't, please leave a comment below! Or, find me on Twitter! I'll probably be posting a thread about the fashion in this fic and what it's inspired by or where it's from, if you're interested!
> 
> Twitter: [@_keithtrash_](https://twitter.com/_keithtrash_)
> 
> And, if you like my content, you can find my Ko-fi link on my [Carrd](https://keithtrash.carrd.co). Just press the cup with a heart on the buttons on the bottom!


End file.
